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> Support has been dropped for Windows Vista and earlier and macOS 10.7 and earlier. Windows Vista was released in 2007, OS X 10.7 in 2011. For some reason, t

by dancek 10y ago

> Support has been dropped for Windows Vista and earlier and macOS 10.7 and earlier. Windows Vista was released in 2007, OS X 10.7 in 2011. For some reason, third-party software seems to support old Windows versions much longer than OS X. Meanwhile, Apple stops supporting old hardware in new OS X versions quite quickly (IMHO), probably for business reasons. I had one Macbook in the past that I had to put Linux on, just because most software dropped support for the most recent available OS version.

brazzledazzle 10y ago
Microsoft invests heavily in backwards compatibility. Apple could too since they have more money than they know what to do with but I take it they prefer the ability to iterate quickly and make breaking changes for the sake of moving things forward.
- jazoom 10y ago
  For the sake of selling more devices
matt4077 10y ago
Sierra supports Macs back to 2009, so thats 7 years which I think is decent. If you want to use a 10-year old notebook, I doubt you're going to be troubled by a 3-year old OS. Apple may seize support older hardware earlier than Microsoft does for a very easy reason: because they can. With the insane amount & combinations of hardware Windows has to support, there's no point in adding anything that's somewhat specific – plus they have a lot more of the "enterprisey" customers with a 15-year support contract and underfunded IT budget. There are quite a few Macs in large companies nowadays, but from what I've seen, they are much more likely to adopt a consumer-like support system, i. e. giving root to the users or letting them individually buy & upgrade within a certain budget. They also tend to update more often, possibly because buying a Mac is already an indicator that they're willing to spend more / that they care about their tools. It's also the complete opposite on mobile phones: not rare for Android phones to sometimes not even support a version that was already released when you bought it, whereas iPhones are good for about 4 iOS versions I believe.
deleted 10y ago
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by dancek 10y ago

brazzledazzle 10y ago

Microsoft invests heavily in backwards compatibility. Apple could too since they have more money than they know what to do with but I take it they prefer the ability to iterate quickly and make breaking changes for the sake of moving things forward.

jazoom 10y ago
For the sake of selling more devices

matt4077 10y ago

Sierra supports Macs back to 2009, so thats 7 years which I think is decent. If you want to use a 10-year old notebook, I doubt you're going to be troubled by a 3-year old OS. Apple may seize support older hardware earlier than Microsoft does for a very easy reason: because they can. With the insane amount & combinations of hardware Windows has to support, there's no point in adding anything that's somewhat specific – plus they have a lot more of the "enterprisey" customers with a 15-year support contract and underfunded IT budget. There are quite a few Macs in large companies nowadays, but from what I've seen, they are much more likely to adopt a consumer-like support system, i. e. giving root to the users or letting them individually buy & upgrade within a certain budget. They also tend to update more often, possibly because buying a Mac is already an indicator that they're willing to spend more / that they care about their tools. It's also the complete opposite on mobile phones: not rare for Android phones to sometimes not even support a version that was already released when you bought it, whereas iPhones are good for about 4 iOS versions I believe.

deleted 10y ago

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